Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Slow Cooker Ham & White Beans

This is the last recipe from our Christmas ham. I always look forward to finishing off the ham with a nice big bowl of white beans and slice of cornbread. This recipe is super simple. It uses a pound of dried beans and simmers all day in the crockpot with a big ham bone. The Honey Baked Ham store sells ham bones year round (found that out on twitter). If you don't have ham bone, use some ham shanks, ham hocks or just some chopped up ham. I love the creaminess of white beans combined with the saltiness of the ham. This is comfort food at its best!

Rinse and sort the beans for any pebbles. Add the the rinsed beans, onion powder, salt, pepper, and ham to the crock pot. Add water. Cover and cook on low about 8 hours, until beans are tender. Remove ham bone, shanks or hocks and pull off the meat. Add meat to the crock pot and mix. Serve with cornbread.

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This sounds so good! I have a nice big ham bone and I wondered what to do with it. But I always heard that salt will toughen the beans. Are great northern beans different somehow? Or have I been mistaken?Thanks!

Saw this on Pinterest. It's in the slow cooker right now. It seemed like a tasty low budget meal. I had roma beans in the pantry and tins of ham, turkey and chicken. Combined all three so I would have close to the 1 lb of meat. I'm winging it and we will see how it turns out!

I live in South La. In our neck of the woods most of us cook our White beans with Salt Meat. To reduce the salt we boil the meat first. I will add my salt meat in the last 2 or 3 hours. This will be the first time I cook my beans in the crock pot.

I bought a bone in 5.5 lb ham and pre cooked that overnight in the crockpot with some vegetable broth. It was falling of the bone this morning, enough to shred easily. I will put the meat back in the crock pot with the beans and chicken broth instead of water and whatever juices came from cooking the ham last night. I'll also use less beans since we like our soups a little thicker but so far it looks good. The ham wasn't salty at all either. I've always just thrown my beans in the crock without pre rinsing or boiling and they came out fine :).

I've taken the beans and "stir fried" them for just a couple of minutes in some bacon grease before adding them to the broth-it gives them a nice slight toasty/hearty taste. I'm also going to use this recipe with black-eyed peas for New Years day. Cooking down the ham hock broth now!

I grew up eating bean soup and since moving away I haven't made it for my family...until now. I will be making it today..although I did soak my beans overnight just out of habit and will be putting them and my ham in the crockpot shortly.

I love this blog and have made many delicious recipes from here. I have this one cooking right now and I gotta tell you, it has been in the crock pot since this afternoon and I am not enjoying the smell of the boiled meat. My husband assures me it will be delicious. I will let you know. :o)

We have a bone from Honey Baked Ham that is too big to fit into the crock pot so we got out our big stock pot to do tis on the stove instead. Would you just simmer this on the stove for the same 8 hours? Or should I bring it to a boil first and then reduce the heat and cook it for less time?

I just picked up 3 ham bones from Honey Baked Ham store for $3. Then picked up the northern white beans and I'm putting them in the crock pot tonight. I'm adding red onion and BACON! because I read that in these comments! yummy! cannot wait for dinner tomorrow!

James - I would drain the beans and add a little water. I would cook the beans and ham about 15-20 minutes on the stove. It won't be the same with canned beans, so I can't guarantee that it will be like the photo.

I made this yesterday and it was yummy. I took a small bowl to work today and I think it's even better the second day!! Only change I made was to used 4 cups chicken broth for some of the water. I will be making this a lot!!

This is in my crock pot now. I'm a little curious as to how it will turn out. I have doctor's appts today so I there was no way I was running around 7mths pregnant and than slaving in the kitchen all evening before I go to bed, lol. I tried your Red Beans and Rice Crock Pot recipe, and we really didn't like it...but this one sounds so much better in my opinion!

I found this today and even though it's summer and hot I didn't want to toss the ham bone. Will make good lunches this week. I skipped the onion powder and added an onion and several chopper celery stalks. Wish I would have read the chicken broth idea before I added the water, but it should still work out ok.

I found this recipe yesterday and it will be Thursday night's dinner! I went to Walmart and found a package of spiral ham chunks and pieces! $3.60 for a 1.6 lb package. I have the beans so this is a really economical meal!

Can anyone direct me to a good cornbread recipe? I like it moist and made it once in my cast iron skillet but cannot find that recipe.Thanks.

I made this recently and it was delicious. I used a ham bone I purchased from the Honey Baked Ham Store. They happened to have a lot of bones at the time, so they sold it to me buy one get one free, so I froze one. Can't wait to make this again!!

So glad I came across this crockpot meal. Thanks! I did make some adaptions because I've never been known to 'follow' a recipe exactly ;) I added a small chopped onion/4 garlic cloves, shredded carrots (in bag from grocery), one half diced yellow pepper, 4 cups chicken broth, 1 cup water and 1 cup white wine. I also added fresh rosemary and a sprinkle of red pepper flakes. It's delicious, filling, and my whole family loves it :)

I found this recipe on Pinterest at about 3 pm. I had a pound of great northern beans and a canned ham. I decided it would be great for dinner, so I boiled the beans for about 15 minutes with some chicken broth, bacon bits onion & garlic, then I plan to put them in the pressure cooker with the cut up ham. I cant wait to see how it comes out. Thanks!

This is s recipe I grew up on! I always save the ham bone with some meat left on it! And throw it in the freezer..... I never do m8ne on the crock pot though...always on the stove....just like gma used to....but I add onion, celery, lots of garlic, and a 1/4 c brown sugar!

This is s recipe I grew up on! I always save the ham bone with some meat left on it! And throw it in the freezer..... I never do m8ne on the crock pot though...always on the stove....just like gma used to....but I add onion, celery, lots of garlic, and a 1/4 c brown sugar!

If I want to double the amount of beans (2 lbs) do I need to double the amount of water? I'm not sure I could fit 12 cups of water, 2 lbs beans, and 2 lbs ham in my crock pot. Sorry if this is a dumb question. I don't cook and I'm new to the crock pot world as well.

I made this this Christmas morning using the ham bone from our Christmas ham. I didn't use the crockpot to cook this but I can see how easy it would be for next time. I placed the beans and ham bone into a pot with 1/2 water and 1/2 low sodium chicken stock to cover. When the meat started pulling away from the bone I took it out and shredded the ham off the bone. I got about 1 cup of meat. I added about 1/2 cup more ham. salt, pepper and I added 1 tsp of parsley (I will put less next time, but it was okay). Very good. I'm fixing some cornbread to go with this for the evening meal. It makes a very full pot so I'm freezing some of it for another cold winter day. Thank you!

Thanks so much for postie this recipe! My Grammy and momhave been making this my whole life and I'm so excited to be able to bring it to my own families table :) cooking now and it's cold outside.....perfect!

well...........Im back...............made the meal and some cornbread muffins to go with it. It was tastey...but......my meal did not have anywhere near the sauce you have in your picture. It is thick like a casserole type meal. Now I know I can add more water to some of the leftovers and make it more soupy.....which I probably will.....but just saying.......mine was thick and not like a soup. But we will eat it!......and I always appreciate all the recipes you put online and have tried several of them and have alwyas been please, so I thank you.

Mine is very watery. Wanted it thicker, like in your picture. Wondering if it's because the ham I used had a LOT of fat. I trimmed of all I could. Wondering if that is the reason. Also, is there a way to thicken it up? Thanks!

I soak my white northern beans overnight. I did find garlic flavored chicken broth, and used it for 2 out of the 6 cups of liquid. It added flavor without doing anything extra. I also used a smoked ham hock, and cut up 2 hickory smoked ham steaks for extra meat. Turned out great!!

I soak my white northern beans overnight. I did find garlic flavored chicken broth, and used it for 2 out of the 6 cups of liquid. It added flavor without doing anything extra. I also used a smoked ham hock, and cut up 2 hickory smoked ham steaks for extra meat. Turned out great!!

I made this yesterday and it's a definite keeper. I used 1 lb dried northern beans, .5 lbs navy beans (soaked overnight), 1 49.5 oz can Swanson’s MSG-free chicken broth (w/Worcestershire & Louisiana hot sauce), 2 smoked turkey legs, and approx. 6 stalks of celery. Cooked on low 6 hours, high 2 hours. It was very good, but had a little bit of an odd flavor (maybe from smoked turkey legs, or maybe from MSG-free broth), I couldn't quite put my finger on the odd flavor. It was even better the next day and the slightly odd flavor was hardly noticeable. Next time I may try un-smoked turkey legs instead. I used smoked legs because I had seen a couple other comments that mentioned that. Thanks for sharing this yummy recipe!!

My dear MIL taught me to make this soup but we add tomato juice to the recipe and when ready to serve, chop up a hard boiled egg into the bowl and serve. The hard boiled egg not only adds flavor but thickens it. Do not freeze with the egg in it or reheat it with it, as the white of the egg will end up tasting like rubber. We soak our beans overnight but also cook on top of stove in big pot. Have never tried using the crock pot but might have to try it. I could soak the beans overnight in same crockpot insert, drain and then use same crockpot insert to make the soup. One less pot to wash!

Trying this dish tonight. Used my tightly wrapped frozen ham bone that I had from last Christmas.....added diced onion, sprinkle of celery salt (no stalks on hand), sprinkle of Nature's Seasoning, 1 bay leaf, diced garlic clove, and a tablespoon of brown sugar as others suggested. Hope this one is a crock pot winner since I normally prepare my beans on the stove top!

I always thought salting made the beans stay hard, but maybe not: http://www.thekitchn.com/think-salt-is-the-enemy-of-perfect-beans-think-again-196470I also add some garlic powder, and I always soak the beans overnight first.

made this today in my 4 qt ~ cause i had a huge ham bone in freezer, used dried white beans and only 5 cups water cause i was striving for creamy (not soupy) ~ perfection! a surprisingly nice change from our usual fare, will make again. thx for sharing with this northern gal:)

This is in my crock pot now with my Christmas ham bone. Used some chicken broth from my freezer for 2 cups of liquid and added some garlic salt. Following Steph's advice did not presoak beans, but have cooked on high for the first couple of hours. The house already smells great!